The Damages Directive - Main articles

The JustCompetition team proposes a closer look at some of the most important articles of the Damages Directive – seven smart animations that go through the main aspects of the new directive.

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The Damages Directive

"There’s a long journey ahead for this Directive but it’s truly to be welcomed. It’s a step into the right direction; it will in fact penetrate into domestic situations and will eventually make it easier for individuals, before each of our Member States, to in fact mount actions from the private side – which after all is the entire objective of combining private enforcement with public enforcement."

Effects of national decisions (Article 9)

"The effect of national decisions: ever before the Directive was published, there was a principle that if the Commission had made the final determination on the question of liability, then, in a follow on action, the infringer was bound by the operative part of the Commission’s decision."

Full compensation vs overcompensation (Article 12)

"What is not envisaged is what is allowed in English law, (…), which is exemplary damages. If the behaviour was so bad that it ought to be punished, then the person who brings the case gets rewarded for doing that by being overcompensated. And that is going to be illegal under the Directive."

Passing-on of overcharges (Article 13)

"So, if you got a supermarket who are claiming that the petrol companies have all got together and raised the price of petrol by 50 cents a litre, the question is: did they suffered that loss or did they passed the whole loss through to their customers?"